Oklahoma governor signs the nation’s strictest abortion ban

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into legislation the nation’s strictest abortion ban, making the state the first within the nation to effectively end availability of the process.

State lawmakers approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits somewhat than felony prosecution, much like a Texas law that was handed final year. The law takes impact instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have said they may stop performing the procedure as soon because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might sign every bit of pro-life legislation that came throughout my desk and I am proud to keep that promise at present,” the first-term Republican said in an announcement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we've got a duty as human beings to do all the things we are able to to protect that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That is what I believe and that's what nearly all of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion providers across the country have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority might additional limit the observe, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence will be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It is going to also have extreme ripple effects, especially for Texas sufferers who had been touring to Oklahoma in massive numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into impact in September.”

The bills are a part of an aggressive push in Republican-led states to reduce abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive court docket that implies justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

The only exceptions within the Oklahoma regulation are to save the life of a pregnant lady or if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.

The bill particularly authorizes doctors to take away a “dead unborn little one attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a probably life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The law additionally doesn't apply to using morning-after pills resembling Plan B or any type of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s four abortion clinics already stopped providing abortions after the governor signed a six-week ban earlier this month.

With the state’s two remaining abortion clinics anticipated to stop providing providers, it is unclear what's going to happen to ladies who qualify under one of the exceptions. The legislation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors might be empowered to resolve which women qualify and that those abortions will be performed in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to prove qualification could show tough and even dangerous in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style invoice already signed into legislation, the measure is one of not less than three anti-abortion bills despatched this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to stay in place that allows non-public citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a lady receive an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court

The third Oklahoma invoice is to take impact this summer season and would make it a felony to carry out an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That invoice incorporates no exceptions for rape or incest.